Relationship To Dysexecutive Syndrome
The executive system of the human brain coordinates actions and strategies for everyday tasks. Essentially, this system permits humans to self-regulate their behavior so as to sustain action and problem solving toward goals specifically and the future more generally. Dysexecutive syndrome is defined as a "cluster of impairments generally associated with damage to the frontal lobes of the brain" which includes "difficulties with high-level tasks such as planning, organising, initiating, monitoring and adapting behaviour." Such executive deficits pose serious problems for a person's ability to engage in self-regulation over time to attain their goals and anticipate and prepare for the future.
Adele Diamond has postulated that the core cognitive deficit of those with ADHD-PI (ADD) and possibly SCT, is working memory, or, as she coined in her recent paper on the subject, "childhood-onset dysexecutive syndrome". She states:
- "Instructional methods that place heavy demands on working memory will disproportionately disadvantage individuals with ADD".
- "Language problems often co-occur with ADD, and it is suggested that part of the reason might be that linguistic tasks, especially verbal ones, tax working memory so heavily. Spatial, musical, and artistic skills, however, are often preserved or superior in individuals with ADD."
- "The working memory deficit in many children with ADD is accompanied by markedly slowed reaction times, a characteristic that covaries with poorer working memory in general."
- "Individuals with ADD have difficulty maintaining a sufficiently high level of motivation to complete a task...They go looking for something else to do or think about because they are bored...to remedy a general lower arousal level..."
However, a more recent study found that while adults with SCT had some deficits in executive functions (EF) in everyday life activities, they were primarily of less magnitude and largely centered around problems with self-organization and problem-solving. Even then, analyses showed that most of the difficulties with EF deficits were the result of ADHD symptoms that may co-exist with SCT rather than being attributable to SCT itself. More research on the link of SCT to EF deficits is clearly indicated but as of this time, SCT does not seem to be as strongly associated with EF deficits as is ADHD.
Read more about this topic: Sluggish Cognitive Tempo
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